Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-01-21
FARM NOTES.

An application of lyc will restore to
rough trunks and branches of orchard
trees their original smoothness.
The digestive organs of swine are
easily disarranged under our artificial
system of breeding There is no farm
animal more clearly in its food naturally
than the hog.
The land that will maintain twenty
common herd cows will maintain twenty
well bred ones. and the annual profit
from the latter will be considerably
more than from the former.
II is the same with an animal as with
n steam-boiler-th more complete the
combustion of the food or fuel it gets
the more satisfactory will be the result,
because there is less waste.
Resources of the soil do not end alb
ruptly at four or five inches in depth,
vet there are hundreds OF farms where
all beneath is terra incognita because
no effort has ever been made to explore.
Honey of different grades should be
kept separate. An inferior grade put
in with the best will set lower price
on the whole. At the close of each sea-
son of bloom grade the whole product
Deep tillage of heavy lands is one Of
the surcst safeguards against drought,
for it constitutes provision for storing
moisture in the place where it is most
readily available for the support OF
plants.
When an Elkhart, Ind, farmer was
unloading load of hay which he had
driven to market and sold, he found q
very lively rattlesnake in the hay, and
in the serpent he found two meadow
moles still alive and kicking.
The practice of pegging down ever
blooming roses, so that they will cover
completely the surface of the bed. is well
known to produce very pleasing results.
1t is said that pegging down dahlias
proves quite as satisfactory.
A contributor TO an old number of the
Iotca II neStead says that the secret OF
raising winter squash is to plant late,
and when the borer gets in cover the
vine six inches deep with earth. Bury
ing the worm kills it and saves the crop.
In some parts of Indiana farmers are
tearing down their worm fences built Of
black walnut rails and selling the sea-
soned sticks 10 chairmakers for prices
that will refence their fields with pine
and leave margin of profit on the
operation.
The value of ensilage as winter food
for COWS seems more and more appre-
ciated year by year. Improved methods
of preparing and preserving the fodder.
improved sios. and lapor-saving ma
chinery have added largely to the value
of the food.
Although fiat turnips are mostly
water, there is nutrimcnt enough to
make them an important addition 10
food for cattle and sheep, and it is
therefore desirable that in season of
scarcity they pe raised TO the full extent
of opportunity.
Bees do not work we'll in hive ex-
posed to the sun. In midday, when
very hot, all work on the inside. such
as comb-building and storing honey,
has to be suspended. Sometimes combs
melt down, and the brood dies in the
heat of the sun.
Do not have too many plants in the
hills. II the late corn is backward and
growth apparently slow thin out the
plants, so as to allow of more room and
plant-food. 1t is better TO have one or
two good thrifty stalks than three or
four weakly ones.
II you have thin. Hat stones at COM
mand, say a. thick as roofing slate or
somewhat thicker, try mulching few
strawberry plants with them. Tin an
swers the same purpose. Shingles are
good, but inclined to warp. a patented
clay tile is sold in some places, but
stones are cheaper and better.